Welcome to Equality
by LeDiz
Summary: Frontier. For the Boiz and Gurlz LiveJournal Challenge. Postseries. Ranma meets feminism meets Izumi


**DISCLAIMER:** Written for Inami, as part of the Boiz and Gurlz Meme Challenge. She requested Ranma Saotome and Izumi Orimoto (from Digimon Frontier) with the prompt "Feminism." I'm not sure this is what she had in mind. And it's several years post-canon for both series. Just a heads up.

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_**Welcome to Equality.**_

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She was thin and blonde and fluttering her big green eyes as she leaned in close. "Neee, are you sure you won't forget about it?"

She was cute, he admitted that. Hell, she was damn hot, actually, but she was also barely fifteen, trying to get out of paying him, and besides, his female form was way hotter than she could ever hope to be.

"No," he said blankly, and she stepped back, huffing at him loudly.

"Maiden in distress, here," she said irritably, gesturing to her shirt, which somehow managed to be both low and high cut at the same time. "Be a good, chivalrous man and help a lady out."

"No," he said again. "My wife would slaughter me. And so would her sister for not getting the money."

It had been a fairly simple job. Big, nasty monster with holey wings and long arms, which this girl 'Izumi' called an Icedevimon, had been destroying the area of Tokyo she lived in. Apparently, this was a fairly regular occurrence, but the ones who usually saved the day were apparently 'just… not here'. So, Izumi had done what anyone else would do, and called the Tendou doujou for assistance. But now, the monster dispatched and Ranma nursing a frozen leg and wrist, she was trying to get out of paying him. He was only allowed to go on these jobs without Akane or her father if he got money out of it. Like hell he was putting that family in any more danger – he was damn well going to keep the money coming.

And it kind of annoyed him that this little girl apparently got away with this sort of stunt on a regular basis. _He_ wasn't allowed to flounce around in skimpy clothes and ask big, strong men for help!

Not that he needed to, but… he did miss the free food.

Izumi looked around the ruined street for help, but the only other person still there was the thirteen year old boy Tomoki, who was very carefully not noticing what she was doing. She put a hand to her head, exasperated, and then looked up at him again.

"I don't have twenty thousand yen," she said, folding one arm under her chest. "I… I just can't afford…"

Oh, for the love of… She was crying at him. He got _malleted_ when he cried in front of guys.

"I'm pretty sure you can find twenty thousand yen," he said, then hesitated, considering. Nabiki took barter, and the kids had been bugging him lately… "What about an MP3 player? You gotta have one of those. I'll take that."

The tears vanished for the second she glared at him, before she suddenly turned away, clasping her hands over her chest.

"It's all my fault! If only I had been strong enough to stop Icedevimon! But no… I'm just… oh, I feel so helpless!" she wailed, and spun around again to slam into his chest. Ranma yelped, instinctively lifting his arms up and away as he backed up a step, so there could be no confusion if Akane or Ryouga or… anyone… did happen to show up. Izumi waited a second, then looked up at him, irritated. "Comfort the crying girl, would you?"

"It – I – you're not even making a good job of it!" he wailed, and stepped away, waving his arms. "Tears are not hard to make come! You have nails, I never had nails, my skin is a lot tougher than yours, you should be able to ground those nails into your palm and get the water actually coming out of your eyes! Come on, if you're gonna do it, at least make an effort, would you?"

She stared at him, mouth open for several seconds. "Excuse me?"

"And the outfit, it…! Don't you know how to turn a guy on?" he demanded, then slapped both hands to his face. "No, no, I'm not showing her how. I will not… Akane would kill me."

She continued staring at him. "You think you could show me how to turn a guy on? You?" she repeated, and gestured to his scarred muscles. "A girl, maybe, but a guy?"

He let out a long breath, counted to ten, went through a kata in his head, and then threw back his head and howled. "It's not fair! How come I'm supposed to be a feminist and all for women's rights when the real women are worse than I ever was?" he cried, and then lashed out a finger to point at Izumi. "You are not supposed to see yourself as the object of men's desires! You are your own woman, capable of doing anything men can do, and quite possibly doing it better! You should never, ever, have to sink so low as to flirting with a man to get anything free! And any man that falls for it is a idiotic jerk that should be punished!"

"You've been told that a lot, haven't you?" she asked, and then sighed, folding her arms under her chest. "It's a nice thought, but strong women are useless in the real world. Female power comes from being beautiful and kind, inside and out. I'm good at what I do, you can't change that."

"But – no!" he cried, and waved his arms again. "I mean, yes, you should be… it's nice and… no! It – it – no! You are a… yes, you're beautiful, and that's great, but you're also confident and proud and powerful and smart and… other positive things that have nothing to do with how you look… Not that I noticed how you look, because I mean – I mean, I noticed, but I wasn't looking, and –"

Izumi nodded, still staring at him as she tried to follow his panicked rambling. "But…?"

"But it – it – it's not who you are… Right? I mean… that's what girls – _women_ – are… it… It's not what a person looks like that determines who they are," he said finally. "Even if you're the most beautiful, drop-dead-gorgeous, drool-over-me-now-boys hottie to ever grace this land, it doesn't make you a woman if you're a man on the inside."

"I don't understand," she confessed, and he scratched his head.

"And… the most barrel-bodied, stocky little tomboy is still the most beautiful woman I've ever met, because she's sweet, and strong, and good on the inside. Even if she beats me up on a regular basis," he added, then looked at her again. "So… my point is…"

She raised her eyebrows, waiting, and he nodded, suddenly losing his vague tone and becoming all business.

"I'm a feminist, so, as I, a man, have saved you, a little girl, I am now owed twenty thousand yen in cash or barter."

And that, it turned out, was that.


End file.
